Morphing is a special effect in motion pictures and animations that changes (or morphs) one image or shape into another through a seamless transition. Traditionally such a depiction would be achieved through dissolving techniques on film. Since the early 1990s, this has been replaced by computer software to create a more realistic transition. The method we learned involved the reshape effect, and allowed us to morph one face into another in After Effects.

 

 

In After Effects, import two faces and align them as best as possible on top of one another, toggling the opacity to match the facial features. Click on the three coloured circles, and change the images to full. Select an image, and using the pen tool, trace around it completely, until a mask is made, and the background is removed and do this for both images. Then, expand the layers and click on mask. Copy the mask from one image to the other (ctrl + c, ctrl + v, each mask into each layer). Select ‘add’ to ‘none’ in mask2 for both layers and the second mask doesn’t affect the first. You can double click on the mask to scale it up or down if it is too big after this.

 

 

 

In effects and presets, type in reshape, and drag the effect to the first layer. Choose which mask should be the source mask, and label it as mask 1, and the destination mask as mask 2. Repeat for the other image. At the top layer, you can see the percentage. 0% means that the original image can be seen, and 100% is when it is fully morphed.

Hold alt and click along the masks to create mask lines, which will probably be wonky. These lines show you what part of the source image is morphing into what part of the second one. Straighten these out, so that the eyes, nose, mouth, ears, etc. morph with those same facial features for the other image.  Then, click the stopwatch and put the first at 0% and the second image at 100%, then move the timeline along and swap the numbers.

 

 

 

When the first layer looks normal, put the opacity at 100, and when it distorts, put it as 0. Do the same with the other image, and when you play it back, the faces will morph. Mine didn’t turn out as good because I chose a girl who’s hair sticks out quite a bit and disrupts the morph.